


Trettel-Ing On Thin Ice

by GachMoBrea



Series: Donald Ressler-Reddington Series [2]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: "The Alchemist", + Canon Compliant Scenes, ??? - Freeform, AU, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Gen, Mainly Liz's POV, Missleading Title, Reddington is Ressler's Dad, S01E12, Secrets, bad title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 22:50:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7659994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Elizabeth Keen now knows that Reddington isn't her father, and there's a mole to find, but they still need to work the case... Terrible Summery. (SORRY!)</p><p>Briefly mentions events from the show as we follow Lizzy through it. (I honestly have NO idea what to put here.)<br/>(Rated "Teen" for safety....)</p><p>*{Still trying to figure out how I want to write this series... The beginning is the best part.}</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trettel-Ing On Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do NOT own "The Blacklist", the episode, or the Characters...

/*"Remember, Lizzy, it's imperative that you don't let the rest of the team in on what you know. You have to act like you would normally, naturally. Don't get caught staring at Donald."*/

\---

"Liz? You okay?"  
Ressler's voice startles Keen who was staring off into space at her desk. She smiles at him, "Yeah, just fine."  
"Thinking about Reddington?" her partner smiles knowingly. "I know how you feel. Can't seem to get the guy out of my head either."  
Liz forces her heart to beat back at a normal pace as she smiles at the man sitting across their combined desks. Ressler goes back to his paperwork, shoulder hunching as he scrawls across the page. Liz pretends to go back to her own grunt work, but can't resist glancing up at her partner. She tries to see what Reddington's genetics had done for the man. She knew they shared the same blood type. Was there more? Perhaps the same eyes?  
They both had blue eyes, but not the exact same shade. Ressler's were like crystals that pulled you in when you stare at them too deeply, while Red's are more like storm clouds promising nothing good if you fall into their trap.  
They both had strong jaw lines, Red's having rounded slightly with age, and they weren't exactly identical. Not to mention Red didn't have Ressler's dimpled chin.  
And where did Ressler get all those freckles? Liz had seen them for herself when visiting her partner in the hospital. They covered his arms like animal print.  
Though the hair, the hair she could imagine might work. There were tiny speckles of red in what little hair Reddington had left that wasn't grey or white. Not the thick mane of a head that Ressler kept perfect every day.  
Gosh, will Ressler lose his hair too?  
"Liz!"  
Agent Keen blinks up at the door where their boss, Harold Cooper, was looking at her strangely.  
"Yes, sir?" she asks, confused at the look of annoyance the question gets her.  
"So glad you could grant me your precious attention," Cooper replies sarcastically. "Now, if the both of you aren't too busy, we have a case."  
"Right, sorry sir," Liz shakes her head of the side-by-side pictures of her partner and criminal informant. Cooper leaves, knowing that his people will follow after.  
"Are you sure you're okay?" Ressler asks her quietly as she rounds their desks. "Cooper must've called your name three times before you looked up."  
"Sorry, I'm fine, just," Liz forces a bright smile on her face. "Just getting a little out of my head today, that's all. I'm good." She touches his elbow to cement her sincerity with physical touch, "Really."  
Ressler nods, curt and final, accepting her lie easily. After all, why would his partner lie to him? Keen swallows the tiny amount of guilt as they both walk to the bullpen.

"According to Agent Keen," Cooper addresses the group. "Reddington still believes that there is a mole inside the agency. So he refuses to meet here but he's still willing to work with us by sending messages through Agent Keen."  
Liz takes the nod from her boss as her time to speak, "Reddington says there's a man named "The Alchemist" who disappears people better than he can. When we ran the names he gave me, they were reported dead already."  
"They are dead," Meera frowns. "Are we to chase down ghosts now?"  
"We," Cooper cuts in. "are to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. If Reddington says these people are still alive, I want to have absolute proof that they are or are not. Get me results, people."

-

When the team goes to a bar to stake out for the husband of the 'supposed to be dead' couple, Ressler decides to open up about his ex-fiancée.  
"I'm supposed to be happy for them, but I can't."  
Liz is actually surprised that her no-nonsense partner is using now as the time to talk about this. Briefly, she wonders if Reddington knows about Audrey , then assumes he must, right as their not-dead target walks into the bar to greet a table full of his friends.

After they catch the guy in the bar, Liz calls Reddington to give him an update on their progress, "Ressler actually caught him in the kitchen. Made a very impressive first impression with a gun pointed at the man's head while saying something in his language."  
"Thank you for telling me, Lizzie," Red doesn't sound impressed in the slightest which makes Liz frown. "Let me know what you learn from your new houseguest, will you?"  
The agent opens her mouth to reply, but her informant had already hung up on her.  
'Strange,' Liz thinks, but brushes it off as the man being too preoccupied with finding the mole.

-

When Liz gets back home for a break from work, Tom is there.  
"You're back," she points out the obvious.  
Her husband talks about a lot of things, but mostly he worries about the baby coming in 6 weeks and them having to make a decision because he still wants the baby.  
Liz can't think of children now. Not with the bombshell of Ressler being Red's illegitimate offspring still settling in her mind.

"You have so many secrets. I don't have any secrets."  
'Then why did Reddington tell me to stay away from you?' Liz's mind supplies the agent with all the doubt she needs, but she pushes it away as far as she can as she smiles at the man she loves. "I will do anything to make it up to you."  
That was the wrong thing to say. Because now she's got herself roped into someone throwing them a baby shower.  
That is going to be hosted by Tom and herself. Great.

-

Liz meets back at the Jewish synagogue/temple with Reddington to talk about "The Alchemist" some more and the man's "trade in death".  
"The innocent give their lives for the guilty to live."  
It almost sounds like Red is speaking from experience. Their newest blacklister must have hidden away either a good friend or great foe from the informant.

-

Before they can get any useful information from their un-dead prisoner, The Alchemist disguises himself as the man's attorney and kills him.

Liz calls Dembe to talk to Red but instead of talking over the phone, the criminal wants to meet face to face again.  
Dembe picks her up and takes her to Red in his Den of Geeks where they're combing through shredded paper for signs of the leek.  
The agents tells Red, "Ressler came face to face with the Alchemist, but nothing happened. The guy just snuck in to kill off his latest client."  
"I suppose he's really dead this time," Reddington answers back. "So there's nothing more he can tell us."  
The agents frowns at that. Something seemed wrong about the way Reddington talked when Liz was telling him about Ressler. What was going on in the manipulator's mind?

Red gets Liz thinking on the right path for the case and she goes back to the Post Office.

-

Liz goes straight to her desk to test out her theory.  
Ressler is there and he brings up Audrey and her new boyfriend again.  
"Tassles is going to have to wait."  
She lets her partner in on her discovery about the serial numbers and hands the job of pulling the information off to a younger agent.

Now she just has to wait for the search results.

-

Waiting. One of the worst parts of Liz's job was the waiting.  
And while she waits for something in the case to break, she has to sit in a house full of people excited for her and her husband (for the baby) and act happy....  
Then she and Tom get into a fight that gets interrupted by some woman who was using their bathroom. Thankfully, she's saved by a call from work and makes her 'escape'.

-

They find The Alchemist's lair but he isn't there.  
Ressler deduces the man's getting rid of every trace of himself which means his family is in danger.  
They rush there but, again, it's too late. They're dead. Liz's heart breaks to see the little girl's body lying in a puddle of her own blood.  
How can a man do that to his own family?

How can she raise a child in this world?  
And with a head full of unanswered questions?

She gets home late, leaves early, doesn't bother waking her husband.

When Aram pulls up the Alchemist's files on his victims, Liz realizes the man's family is still alive!  
"Eric Trettel abducted his family. I need your help." she calls on Red.  
Once again, Red turns Liz in the right direction.  
They trace the little girl in order to find her father and mother.

-

They find them. Eric Trettel and his wife and daughter are in a gas station but the little girl's been shot and Mr. Trettel is holding the other customers hostage.  
Liz tries to save the man. Tries to get him out of there alive so that he can give them the names of the criminals who aren't really dead...  
She fails.  
The Alchemist is dead after a heated hostage situation.

-

Back at the Post Office, Liz is finishing off her paperwork when Ressler stands to leave. She remembers what was occupying her partner's mind throughout the day and offers him a friendly, "Good luck with Audrey ."  
"I'm gonna tell her it's a huge mistake."  
He still has feelings for her. It was obvious and he's clearly come to terms with it. But she doesn't sense the confidence he usually has, "You sure about that?"  
"Yeah."  
Definitely lacks the confidence.

Aram hacks the Alchemist's database and gets the names.

-

Back at the Jewish synagogue/temple, Liz brings the list to Red. He pockets it without even looking at it.  
Reddington doesn't even bother pretending like he's going to share the reason why he had them after The Alchemist, "You wanted us to get at him for you. Who are you looking for? Does this have to do with whoever's after Ressler?"  
"I'm sorry. I have unfinished business," Red gets out of the pew to leave but Liz grabs his wrist.  
"No, Reddington," she tells him firmly. "If we're working together on this, you need to answer some of my questions."  
"It's too soon in the game to tell you certain things, Lizzie," Red puts his hand over hers. "I'm sorry about that, but it's the truth."  
"This isn't a game," Liz tightens her grip on him. "We're talking about people's lives and if there's a name on that list of someone you are going to go gunning for, I deserve to know that."  
"I will tell you, Lizzie," Red smiles kindly at her. "But right now I have an appointment with a mole."  
"You found him?" Liz's brain fires up with all the possibilities. "I'm coming with you."  
Reddington laughs a little at the statement like it was a request, "And expose yourself to them? Whoever it is that's pulling the strings in the shadows?" he shakes his head. "I think not."  
"I'm letting you off this time," Liz warns him as she lets go of his wrist. "But I expect more answers the next time I see you, Reddington."  
"And you shall have them, my dear," the criminal promises with a slight bow before walking out of the building, Dembe following mere steps behind his boss.

-

Liz arrives at an empty house.  
Tom doesn't answer his phone.  
She puts the Chinese in the fridge and goes to sleep alone.


End file.
